Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Duluth, MN - Yeah, the whole city.

Since it was the last weekend we have free for a while, we decided to go relax in Duluth, MN. People from the Twin Cities talk about it, so we went to see what the hubbub was about. We weren’t going to stay, since hotels there are expensive – it’s kind of a touristy get away right on Lake Superior. We stumbled on a cheap motel, so that changed our mind about staying. There are a lot of big name hotels, but there are a lot of quaint places that aren’t scary, so plan accordingly.

Duluth seemed to be a two street shopping/tourist attraction. There’s Superior Street which has shops and a couple of restaurants overlooking the Lake – which is an awesome view, by the way. And there’s the Canal Street area, full of touristy chains and the Grandma’s compound. That’s about it. I can sum it up in one sentence. “If you’re not in the cute part of town, you’re in the BUSTED part of town.”

It’s a good place to spend the weekend, but don’t get too excited about staying there longer. You’ll run out of things to do (unless you like to eat 24/7 – which they have PLENTY of awesome restaurants). There is a decent disc golf course at the local college and a lot of homeless people at 8am on a Sunday morning (totally unrelated).

Top 10 1. The local strip club had a special feature erotic contortionist performing. Now THAT’s culture, my friends.2. Amazing food, everywhere we went3. Everything (except hotels) is affordable. Not tourist inflated.4. Got to see an oil tanker go under the lift bridge. Very cool.5. The Superior Street area is connected with the Canal street area by a long skyway6. Plenty of beaches for the 50 degree water, which people were utilizing7. Decent disc golf course (Miller Creek) where I played golf with Dale – random local – Happy Birthday, Dale!8. It’s one of the best views of nature in Minnesota9. Duluth is home to DBU – which I assume is Douche-Bag University 10. Superior, WI (right across the river) has a whole corner of town filled with dirty, scary strip clubs.

Bottom 51. The Leif Ericson Viking ship was covered with a tarp in hopes of soliciting funds - angrifying!!!2. Has some serious economic downturn3. Still had kind of a white trash touristy feel to the whole thing – lots of tank tops and Disney clothing4. Grandma apparently owns everything on Canal Street5. I’m guessing it’s frighteningly cold in the Winter….